Killer Driver: Gentle Giant Or Wild One?

Published: April 24, 1995

ASHEBORO, N.C., April 23—
Sean Patrick Goble considered himself a lady's man and bragged to the police about his romantic exploits and 300-pound physique. A neighbor called him a "scary kind of fellow." Others call him a sensitive, generous giant. He once told the police that his girlfriend beat him up.

Homicide investigators from North Carolina and about 10 other states are trying to draw an accurate portrait of the confessed serial killer, an enigmatic trucker whose black 18-wheeler had "The Wild One" emblazoned across the cab.

After he was arrested on April 14, Mr. Goble told the police that in January, he killed 45-year-old Brenda Kay Hagy of Bloomington, Ind., at a service station in Tennessee and dumped her body along Interstate 81 in Virginia.

He also confessed to killing 36-year-old Alice Rebecca Hanes, a prostitute from Ohio whose body was found last month in Kingsport, Tenn., the police said.

The authorities in Guilford County, N.C., said Mr. Goble told them he was involved in the death of a woman whose body was found along Interstate 40 in February.

He will stand trial first in Greensboro in that case. The woman has not been identified.

Mr. Goble, who pronounces his first name "Seen," was arrested by local, state and Federal officers when he drove his Peterbilt tractor into the Rocky Road Express terminal in Winston-Salem, N.C. He lived in a blue trailer in nearby Asheboro.

Kurt Stonestreet, who owns the trucking company with his father, rated Mr. Goble among the top drivers he has hired over the years.

One police investigator, who asked not to be identified, said Mr. Goble "is very fond of his power over women, he loves his women."

"He's very proud of his physique," the investigator told The News & Observer of Raleigh. "I'm serious. He thinks women go for him."

The investigator said Mr. Goble did not seem to comprehend the serious nature of the charges.

"He said, 'I'm going to do my time in Tennessee and get this behind me so I can get on with my life,' " the investigator said. "I don't think he thinks much of these gals he's choking. He was thinking he was going to get out and drive a truck again."

A sharply different picture was drawn by two sisters from Asheboro, who said he gave them rings and clothing, which the authorities have confiscated.

"Whenever he was off the road, he would come to my house," Lisa Hill, a 30-year-old mother of three, told The Asheboro Courier-Tribune newspaper. "Park that truck right up in front. He was gentle. He was like a big bear. If I was crying, he was right there holding me. He didn't mistreat anybody."

Ms. Hill's sister, Wanda Moore, said Mr. Goble also gave her several gifts during the 10 months she had known him and called her almost every day he was on the road.

"He's called me many times out on the road and stuff crying," Ms. Moore told The Courier-Tribune. "Sometimes he'd say it was his grandma that was sick. Other times he wouldn't say why he was upset. Other times he'd say something wasn't right and he just wanted to talk."